


Starlight Radio

by Notmarysue



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Comedy, Comedy of Errors, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, Dungeons & Dragons Campaign, Female Friendship, Gen, Light-Hearted, Mistakes, POV Female Character, Reflection, Self-Reflection, Unknown time period, radio host
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:21:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24606130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notmarysue/pseuds/Notmarysue
Summary: In a concrete tower stood proudly in the middle of the ocean,a very professional looking half-elf keeps a watchful eye over her very unprofessional radio station.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Starlight Radio

**Author's Note:**

> To TJ and Liz, thank you so much for the campaign so far. I'm having a great time and I hope you guys are too. I had to change the station name so that actual WTNV fans wouldn't stumble on this and be confused, but we all know it's Nightvale in our hearts.
> 
> (Also to TJ, sorry if I spelt any character or location names wrong)

Jade starred up at her bedroom ceiling, tracing the cracks in the plaster from the uncomfortable top bunk of the bed. She wasn’t scheduled to get up until 6am and the radio show itself didn’t start until 6:30, but she always found herself waking up at the first timid rays of sunlight. She could never be sure if it was the fault of the thin curtains and the loud crashing waves outside her ocean studio or if it was simply force of habit. Back when she was a thief it was always easier to move early in the morning or late at night, the start and end of the guard’s shifts. They were much more easily flustered when swapping over. Slipping by unnoticed was a breeze.

Of course, a long time had passed since Jade had labelled herself as a ‘thief’. She’d been many things since then: a trader, a bounty hunter, a freedom fighter, and now a radio host. Just her, her only true friend, and a grump intern in a concrete tower stood in the middle of the ocean. It was a peaceful life, with the days passing by serenely. Still, the fear that things wouldn’t last never stopped mounting in the back of her mind.

The tiny alarm clock finally went off. Jade rolled out of bed, debating whether she should bother to change out of her pajamas. It wasn’t like anyone could see her, after all. She eventually decided to that yes, she should get dressed, for her own dignity at the very least. She changed into her black and white suit and tie and tied her brunette hair into a high ponytail. A very professional look for a very unprofessional radio station. 

“Are you going to co-host today, Creeps?” Jade asked the small dragon born with flowing red locks that lay half asleep on the bottom bunk. They’d originally met after their home country was destroyed by an act that had long been covered up, with Creeps always giving Jade the perfect alibi for her growing list of crimes. No matter what Creeps stood by her and in time started to guide her, keeping Jade out of some scraps and leading her by the hand into others. As time passed, fake friendship became real friendship, playful resistance became genuine rebellion, and alibis moved into hiding. When they finally escaped their royal hunters, they made sure to escape together.

“No,” Creeps grumbled. “I’ve got another essay to write.”

“What’s this one about?”

“How to mine resources from untapped areas.”

“And how do you mine resources from untapped areas?”

“I don’t know,” She sighed. “I think I’m just going to make something up.”

“That’s fair.” Jade shrugged. “I’m off to start the show.”

“Aren’t you going to eat something?” Creeps asked, popping her head up from the pillow.

“I’ve still got some left-over enchiladas in my backpack.”

“Careful, there might be worms.”

“Good, worms make excellent protein.” Jade smirked as she fixed her tie and headed towards the booth.

The radio booth was hastily put together, as was everything else in the building, but Jade liked it well enough. It was just a little box room with barely decorated walls. A wooden desk with a microphone and some cheap audio equipment stood by the far wall with a chair stolen from somebody’s kitchen tucked underneath. By the left wall was a filing cabinet with a phone perched haphazardly on top and on the right wall hung the rooms only decoration, a tattered poster which showed a crude portrait of the station’s main rival, Brett Keen, with the slogan ‘do it to spite him’ printed in large white letters at the bottom. The poster made Jade grin every time she saw it. If there was anything that could motivate her, it was spite. She took her seat and placed on her headphones. The intern dropped the booklet that would serve as her guidance for the day on the desk next to her. Jade gave them a smile as the countdown began, though they didn’t smile back. A gentle automated message gave her the cue.

“You are now live and on the air.” It said cheerily as the daily intro music began to play.

“Good morning, listeners. It’s wonderful as always to be on the air with all you wonderful people down in Creed and Ghetto, and a warm welcome to all those now listening from Anacondri.” She greeted cheerily. “That’s right folks, I received word last night that we’re now getting traffic from the very center of royal controlled territory. I would sound more grateful, but you guys were trying to kill me less than a month ago so we’re still on kind of rocky terms. Can’t get me now though, can you? Ha!”

She smiled and reached over for the thick booklet of information that sat on her desk.

“We’re starting off today with some station updates. It seems that we’re changing the name of the station for a third time. Three name changes in less than three weeks. We do like to keep things fresh around here. Anyway, it seems that Starlight Radio will hence fourth be known as…” She sighed as she flicked through the booklet. “Bring back Brett Keen…what do you mean bring him back? He doesn’t work for us. He’s never worked for us. He’s still on the air, you can just-“

She sighed again as she searched for a way to change the subject. When Jade and Creeps were looking for a country to hide in there were many factors to take into account. Creed appealed for two reasons; nobody cared where they came from and the society worked on somewhat of a democracy, something nowhere else seemed to have. Of course, it wasn’t a true democracy, with the crime syndicate that passed for leadership seeming to be somewhat fixed, but most major decisions were put down to a poll. Anybody could vote and anybody could submit options to vote on. If somebody had an opinion, then that opinion would be heard. Everybody got a say. At the time, it sounded ideal. There was only one major downside. Nobody in Creed took the polls seriously. As a result, almost everything about the radio stations internal affairs, which were swayed by public demand, had turned into a farce so quickly. It was the people of Creed that had decided to place the radio tower in the ocean, and it was the people of Creed that kept changing the station’s name. It was even the people of Creed that had chosen for Jade and Creeps to run the show in the first place. The polls chose them because they weren’t and never had been professionals. The chaos was the only way to keep things interesting. 

“Okay, well moving onto the news. Royal airship activity over Creed has been down for the third week in a row. This comes after the…unfortunate death of Duke Jakka. In official statement the Queen has said, and I’m quoting here “Duke Jakka’s death was accidental. Yes totally, one hundred percent accidental, unforeseen and definitely not the result of any rebel activity, so you should all stop asking about it”. Of course, reporter inevitably then started asking her about it and after a few minutes of general confused shouting the Queen seemed to contradict her previous statement by claiming, “You know what, Jakka never even existed and you’re all crazy for even asking about his death. You should stop making up fake Dukes and fake rebellions and go get real jobs” before shouting “hey, what’s that over there” and running off stage. We’re not yet sure if this cunning rouse to confuse people of Jakka’s non-existence has been at all successful, so we’ll be sure to keep you updated on that.”

She flipped the page, hoping to find some news that wasn’t about the royals and the late Duke Jakka. She knew he was real, though she wished she could pretend that he had been a bad dream. The way his death was ultimately an accident. After all, there was no way for her and Creeps could have known that one of his own airships would come tumbling down into the mountain they were fighting on, nor could they have known he wouldn’t be fast enough to get out of its way as they had so narrowly managed. Was he already gravely injured at the time? Yes. Were those injuries their fault? Also yes. But had they actually been the ones to kill him? No, absolutely not. Besides, rebels came with such nasty connotations in the royal world. Jade preferred to consider herself as simply a criminal with morals.

“Oh, this one’s juicy. You’re going to love this one guys. I’ve got news from our glorious leader, Wonga himself. He says that they’re making excellent progress on breaking into the ancient temple of endless bounty, which has been nicknamed the ancient dev room by some citizens. With the help of Creeps and some helpful town folks we could be inside within the space of a year. Legend has it that this temple contains endless resources which will allow us to build Creed up until we are finally strong enough to take over roy…t-to take over um…sorry guys, I seemed to have dropped something out the booklet. Just give me a second.”

Jade reached down to pick up a small slip a paper, which had carelessly been left to float to the floor at the start of the broadcast. She brought it close to her face and started to quietly read aloud.

“Section on dev room progress for your eyes only. Please do not broadcast...ah. Um…” She tapped her fingers on the desk for a few seconds as she tried to formulate a plan. “Sorry about that folks. It seems some sort of prank has made its way into the booklet. All that dev room stuff, fake news the lot of it….anyway, here’s Wonderwall.” She said hurriedly as she pressed the button let the music play. She slammed the headphones down as she dashed back towards the bedroom.

“Creeps, I’m going to need help writing one of those apology letters again.”


End file.
